August 1, 2008

It's what Manolo wants. He abhors "'faux eccentricity', the tendency of among many young fashion designers to adopt outrageous clothing and patently false personas in the hopes that they will mask the fully conventional heart which beats beneath."

Indeed, from the past Project Runway seasons only Jay and Santino have been well, truly, and uniquely eccentric. And it is not the coincidence that both have been outsiders in every sense of the word.

What about Christian?

This season, only Stella, who has decided to live her entire life as if she were in the Whitesnake video, and holds to this position even when evidence suggests otherwise, comes closest to being the true eccentric, although her eccentricity is not in the least ways original.

She has decided to live her entire life as if she were in the Whitesnake video....

What if you had to commit to live your entire life as if you were in some music video? What video? We're talking fashion, attitude, mannerisms, assorted trappings... You need a convincingly eccentric persona for this challenge.

I always took him as kind of a phony. It was like he decided he needed a catchphrase and so overdosed us on "fierssse" every other word. Now this season there's the guy who says "Suede" every other word. Oh yeah, and the guy who loves to tan. Great. Talk about dull. (Still love the show, it doesn't need crazy to be interesting, just great talent.)

I was never even a slight Death Cab fan. But, that song, live, summer at the Gorge/WA, at the end of the day, was ten times more amazing than the recording. Now, it plays very flat every time I hear the recording. They could definitely remix or rerecord it, the rising tide can be made several times more powerful, and the plateau can be absolutely sublime, I've witnessed it.

And then, the perfect live location, with good folks, there are no words.

hmmm...maybe the faux Dylan in the Weird Al Dylan-like video. You'd have many layers to mutate between, and the fools would think you were doing as an homage, the cynics would think you were doing it for the money, but at heart, you'd be doing it for the humor, and the love of the humor. Why else get a brain cramp over making all the palindromes, if not out of sheer love of the humor?

Or perhaps Astaire in the "Pick Yourself Up" video. Pretending to be unable to do something you can do really, really well to impress a girl you've cost her job and annoyed the hell out of, just to dazzle and win her over so that you can both have fun with the dance and each other, get her job back and an audition at the Silver Sandal! You could do worse.

I have been giving a great deal of serious thought to the proper attire for female legal professionals. My advice: Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Unlike the somewhat trampy Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth takes her position seriously. She dresses not to taunt and torment but to convey a sense of high seriousness. This is a woman who is not afraid of tweed suits and tight hair buns. Eleanor Roosevelt would look deshabille next to this jurist....How to emulate this look? Black orthopedic shoes are the foundation of any respectable woman's attire. No one ever questions the integrity or gravitas of a woman in orthopedic shoes. Manolo Blahnik has a line of faux orthopedic shoes with Belgian lace laces that are reasonably priced.